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View Full Version : [Modern] What does a "base/hideout" need?



Kiero
2015-02-03, 02:22 AM
We will very shortly be starting a Werewolf: the Forsaken 2nd edition game (wiki (http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Werewolf_Paris)), set in contemporary Paris (just outside the centre, somewhere in the arrondissement of Bobigny). The PCs have a base location, which is an old railyard (freight stop-off not passenger station)/junkyard turned into an artist's workshop and Bohemian commune (it has accomodation on-site too). It's in a faded industrial area.

At present the setup is pretty basic. There's the workshop building and a yard full of scrap metal. Some barracks where the survivors of the cult we smashed to get the place live. Somewhere on the site is an old bronze foundry, in which lives the spirit who we've adopted as our totem. Security is chains and padlocks on the gates.

There are four PCs (three werewolves and a Wolf-Blooded) and half a dozen NPCs. None of the latter are combatants by any stretch of the imagination (all of the cult's muscle was either killed or driven off when we took the place), so we don't have security guards or the like. We do have the space to take more people into the pack.

The question is, what does a modern hideout need? Are things like a backup generator, cameras and alarms, a concealed tunnel to get outside the complex and so on necessities? What about entertainment and amenities for our residents (I'm guessing accomodation is pretty basic at the moment)?

That's just mundane threats, of course, this is also a place of supernatural significance. The PCs are the main counter-supernatural security, but we could potentially get spirits to guard the place too.

Thoughts?

Ashtagon
2015-02-03, 04:38 PM
Kitchen, toilet, sleeping space, meeting place. Everything else is optional, and even those four are optional if the PCs are feeling sufficiently desperate.

* Backup power
* Supplies. Is the base intended to be a bunker that can hold out for months? If so, you want non-perishable food supplies, water supplies, possibly a means to recycle water if you aren't confident of external water, maybe fuel for your generator to run months at a time. Make sure your food is tinned rather than frozen, in case a power failure ruins it all. Plan on having medical supplies available. Do you need a dedicated sickbay or maybe even an operating theatre available?
* Communications. TV-Radio receiver is traditional. More advanced bases may want a radio transmitter too. In modern times, you probably want include some kind of Internet connection. However the base is "stealth", you probably want to avoid Internet, because it sends out a signal that can be used to trace the base's location. Telephones - landline or mobile phone? Or do you use CB radio / walkie-talkies?
* Entertainment. DVD boxed sets music collections, etc. Don't forget a wide-screen TV! This rises in importance if the base is intended to be a long-term sealed bunker.
* Safe box or strong room. For sufficiently important bases, the entire building may be reinforced to strongroom standards.
* Security (physical barriers, surveillance, traps, actual guards). Stuff to stop unwanted people getting in (or out).
* Is the base hidden? If so, how? Is it disguised as an ordinary building, or is it disguised so the entrance and or structure itself is not detectable? Maybe it is underground?
* Emergency escape routes. This may be as basic as a fire escape, or as advanced as a priest hole, or secret room (possibly reinforced and bomb-proof) with a passage to a distant exit. Maybe a modern "panic room" of the kind installed by rich plutocrats.
* Maybe a workshop if you plan on being able to fabricate tools. Electronics shops and mechanics shops need different setups. You might want both, to be safe. Don't forget a supply of machine-tooled parts, unless you also have a foundry on site.

Beta Centauri
2015-02-03, 05:02 PM
It's a story-focused system, right? Take your cues from stories.

What you describe reminds me of Blade and Whistler's hideout in the movie. All the amenities of home - just barely. We never see a bathroom, I don't think, but it would have one, along with a lot of other stuff we never see. Also, a lot of stuff can do double duty, such as a table being used for lunch, assembly, surgery and autopsies.

The important thing to remember, and for the players to remember is that it's never actually secure. Secure facilities exist in stories specifically to be compromised at some point. If the security systems are detailed in a story, then that's so that we understand exactly how smart the invaders are when they disable them, or how full of hubris the designers were when the threat is something the systems weren't designed to deal with.

The bad guys will get in. It might not even be clear how, but they'll still do it. Storywise, of course, the characters still need to be roleplayed as if they're safe. Or maybe there's one of them who is paranoid and, while he can't stop the infiltration, has a contingency set up to mitigate it.

(Un)Inspired
2015-02-03, 06:03 PM
Bumper pool and coke machines.

Kiero
2015-02-03, 06:04 PM
Kitchen, toilet, sleeping space, meeting place. Everything else is optional, and even those four are optional if the PCs are feeling sufficiently desperate.

* Backup power
* Supplies. Is the base intended to be a bunker that can hold out for months? If so, you want non-perishable food supplies, water supplies, possibly a means to recycle water if you aren't confident of external water, maybe fuel for your generator to run months at a time. Make sure your food is tinned rather than frozen, in case a power failure ruins it all. Plan on having medical supplies available. Do you need a dedicated sickbay or maybe even an operating theatre available?
* Communications. TV-Radio receiver is traditional. More advanced bases may want a radio transmitter too. In modern times, you probably want include some kind of Internet connection. However the base is "stealth", you probably want to avoid Internet, because it sends out a signal that can be used to trace the base's location. Telephones - landline or mobile phone? Or do you use CB radio / walkie-talkies?
* Entertainment. DVD boxed sets music collections, etc. Don't forget a wide-screen TV! This rises in importance if the base is intended to be a long-term sealed bunker.
* Safe box or strong room. For sufficiently important bases, the entire building may be reinforced to strongroom standards.
* Security (physical barriers, surveillance, traps, actual guards). Stuff to stop unwanted people getting in (or out).
* Is the base hidden? If so, how? Is it disguised as an ordinary building, or is it disguised so the entrance and or structure itself is not detectable? Maybe it is underground?
* Emergency escape routes. This may be as basic as a fire escape, or as advanced as a priest hole, or secret room (possibly reinforced and bomb-proof) with a passage to a distant exit. Maybe a modern "panic room" of the kind installed by rich plutocrats.
* Maybe a workshop if you plan on being able to fabricate tools. Electronics shops and mechanics shops need different setups. You might want both, to be safe. Don't forget a supply of machine-tooled parts, unless you also have a foundry on site.

That's a good list.

Medical supplies are probably optional; the only people who get in physical danger are the PCs, who all have supernatural healing abilities that obviate the need for treatment. It might bolster the morale of the mundane members of the pack, though, to know we have some means to patch them up without going to a hospital.

We've got a supernatural escape route (for the PCs at least) in the form of shifting into the spirit world. Not really a safe place for our NPC hangers-on to go to, though.

Presently, the place is only hidden in plain sight. It looks like a workshop for some crazy bronze-smithing artist. Already have the fabrication/crafting facilities covered, though not sure what state the old bronze foundry is in.


It's a story-focused system, right? Take your cues from stories.

What you describe reminds me of Blade and Whistler's hideout in the movie. All the amenities of home - just barely. We never see a bathroom, I don't think, but it would have one, along with a lot of other stuff we never see. Also, a lot of stuff can do double duty, such as a table being used for lunch, assembly, surgery and autopsies.

The important thing to remember, and for the players to remember is that it's never actually secure. Secure facilities exist in stories specifically to be compromised at some point. If the security systems are detailed in a story, then that's so that we understand exactly how smart the invaders are when they disable them, or how full of hubris the designers were when the threat is something the systems weren't designed to deal with.

The bad guys will get in. It might not even be clear how, but they'll still do it. Storywise, of course, the characters still need to be roleplayed as if they're safe. Or maybe there's one of them who is paranoid and, while he can't stop the infiltration, has a contingency set up to mitigate it.

That's also a valid consideration. I guess the danger of being compromised will be proportionate to the amount we invest in securing it and relying upon it.

Acacia OnnaStik
2015-02-03, 06:25 PM
One thing you should consider is to what extent it's a base (which implies, at least to me, a kind of staging area for your "missions") and to what extent it's a hideout (which suggests to me that its primary function is "a place to lie low").

A base should definitely be much more secure, have weapons stashes if your characters need that kind of thing, probably a backup generator and surveillance. Really, Ashtagon has this option covered as far as I can see.

For a hideout, though, some of those things might actually be liabilities, making people wonder why this "Bohemian commune" needs them. I'd picture a hideout relying more on strict rules about always arriving/leaving separately and never going there if you're not 100% sure you've lost any pursuit. Possibly also supernatural counterintelligence measures, you'd know better than me what Werewolf has to offer in that area.

Beta Centauri
2015-02-03, 06:31 PM
That's also a valid consideration. I guess the danger of being compromised will be proportionate to the amount we invest in securing it and relying upon it. That seems to be how these things usually go. And it's not that the invaders are stupidly suicidal. They probably have a single specific mission to accomplish, which yes might involve their deaths, but at least serves some purpose.

In X-COM: Apocalypse, the player designs one or more bases, including who staffs them (agents or scientists or both) and a few security options. Some steps can be taken to prevent incursions, but sometimes they just happen. The enemies are suicidal in that game, but they can take out members of the player's research teams, costing the player time and money.

Jay R
2015-02-04, 01:01 PM
Bat-poles. Gotta have bat-poles.

If I had a one-story hideout on an impenetrable granite rock, with nothing above it, I would still install bat-poles.